Southern Shores Realty — Attraction in Southern Shores

My family has been coming to the Outer Banks, specifically Southern Shores, for over 40 years. The area is fantastic but Southern Shores Realty has slowly deteriorated in their expectations for cleanliness and home maintenance. This summer's vacation has sealed the deal for us - we are done with renting from this group.

To give perspective, we have rented the same house for 15 years. We have grown accustomed to bringing hammers to repair the deck boards ourselves each year, so the kids don't get their foot caught on a nail. We know the bathrooms and furniture are outdated and come to expect a new leak in the 1st floor ceiling that's recently been patched. But it has never affected the quality of our vacation like this year.

With Covid, there was said that new cleaning practices were put into place, so we could not get in the house until after 5pm (okay, that wasted a day). But strangely enough, on Saturday when we arrived, we noticed a full bar of soap, beads, and hair sitting in the center of the outdoor shower. No big deal, my 14 year old cleaned it up. The only change to cleaning that we noticed, was the sticky notes left on the toilets that had the word "Sanitized" hand-written on each.

On Sunday, we went to use the grill and it was obvious it had not been cleaned... ever. Whole chicken wings were still in the bottom of the grill, with a full grease trap. Oh, and Sunday was when my 12 year old daughter noticed that we had ants in our bedroom coming from the window... flying ants and small black ants. Yup - all on our beds, floor and ceiling!

So we called the rental office. They sent over someone to clean the grill and spray the ants. We were left to clean up the dead ants with a broken vacuum from the house.

Monday - ants are back! Called the realty office again. This time we deal with someone from Terminex. Who says that one of the problems is that there's a vine growing over that window, attracting the ants... doesn't remove the vine... just sprays again and leaves us with the mess to clean up with the broken house vacuum. Glad the clothes washer and dryer works, because now I've washed 3 sets of sheets - twice. My two girls, and myself, are now so creeped out by the ants, that we decide to not sleep in the room any longer. I take the living room couch, my 12 year old sleeps with her 9 year old cousin, and my 14 year old took the upstairs couch. That now displaces my father from the family room, whom likes to stay up late and watch TV... so he goes to his room to read. Oh, wait, the lamp doesn't work in his room? Guess we will call Southern Shores on Tuesday too.

Called on Tuesday, repairman came and took the broken lamp with him, also was kind enough to nail down some decking boards on the front steps that we had missed.

It's now Friday and my Dad still doesn't have a lamp. Maybe we can just move a lamp from the ant room? Leaving today, a day early, mostly for traffic reasons... but I also don't want to spend another night on this couch. So, out of our 6 full days here, 3 of them were spent waiting for a repair person or someone from cleaning to show up.

Now that you understand what happened - here is what Southern Shores did NOT do: No follow up call from Southern Shores about any of our repairs or insect infestation, no attempt at trying to keep our family's business by offering any kind of reimbursement for spending almost half of our vacation dealing with issues that we should not have to, no clue that one of the bedrooms cannot be used (and we needed it)..... nothing!!! Makes us feel taken advantage of, and not a valued customer.

Please - take your family's hard-earned money elsewhere... because this is how they treat customers...

Stayed a week at their triple play location back in June. First... The property was beautiful and the only reason I'm giving this a 2 star instead of a 1 star.... Week started off with the refrigerator not working first two days. (Outta town with a big family kinda need a fridge) The hot tub wasn't up on the deck like pictured, the hot tub down by the pool didn't work (we weren't able to use half the week) people few weeks before us broke it, pool guy showed up unannounced day two early about the hot tub (Our young children playing in the pool) (red flags a man showing up at our rental around our children without announcing who he was or what he was doing 18hrs from home) and started *itching at us making it sound like we were at fault and will be paying for it. (The hot tub) (Rental company knew it was broke and didn't advise us or warn us prior). Already a pretty crappy way to start a vacation that was really expensive for a modest family. (Being told we will be paying for a 15,000 dollar hot tub day 1) Then proceeded to show up five more times thru the week. FIVE TIMES!!!! In 6 days and a night.... the pool didn't filter all week, (didn't find out till the last day) who knows what we swam in.... The Jacuzzi tub in our room didn't work... the water for showers and baths were luke warm at best... if it worked at all.... Tvs didn't work, internet went out a few times (teens worst nightmare right) we couldn't use the upper decks cause the railing was loose, we didn't want anyone to fall through 3 story's.... Lights didn't work, cactus in the back yard and wasn't usable.... the sand play area was FULL of cat crap. the maintenance guy came a few times to fix things, (super good guy, very helpful. This man deserves a raise... Seriously!!!! ). Got the TVs working on day 3. Fast forward to day 6. Packed up ready to leave and the AC quit working. Last day check out was at 10. We were pack up and in the car by 8am and the cleaning company showed up at 7am wanting in the house to get laundry.... Guess who showed up again blocking us in. (Large 6 car drive) Pool guys.....x2.... Couldn't leave till almost 930.... Cleaning people showed up twice waiting for us to go... Circling the block, pulling in and out as we were loading the car.... I know this all sounds minor but when you pay thousands and thousands of dollars for a week stay 18hrs from home. Kinda sucks...... So many things this week just added stress, didn't work, or was brushed under the rug.... Not quite how our first major vacation as a family should of went. I'm leaving a lot of things out for the sake of this already being long enough... But after a two page letter, 3 emails, a formal complaint, and an in person (right after the stay) to their office ... I never even got a returned phone call...... Ya.... Icing on the cake.... So... Do what you want with your family, as for mine, we will be taking next year's vacation elsewhere ... Just another customer right..... Thanks for the read....

First I want to say I know with staffing shortages it’s been challenging times for all sectors of business. Also that every service provider we met along the way were absolutely lovely…

I was the point person for a family reunion. Planning started November 2021 for some enjoyable family time after Covid kept our families apart. Three houses were rented per my research with Southern Shores. The two other houses everyone was happy. My group rented Fitzyz on The Banks and had some major hiccups along the way.

1st started with move in day. At 1:05p I received a phone call that cleaners were delayed and house would be ready at 5p, which we understood. At 4:15p one of our family members stopped by and there were no cleaning people in the home. How would a house of that size be cleaned in 45 minutes and they way it should be. We had 3 babies and a 74 year recent stroke survivor in tow along with perishable food. At 4:30p I was told by Southern Shores to move in and the cleaners would clean around us…. First cleaner arrived at 4:45p and I started helping with the cleaning process…. Why I just wanted to get our family moved in. 2nd cleaner arrived after 5:30p and both admitted they needed more time. The house needed a big deep spring clean. I contacted Southern Shores and a $300 check for cleaning is being sent. But beware I hope the deep clean has happened for future guests.

8 bedrooms are listed on this rental. Bedroom 1 next to the movie room shouldn’t be a listed bedroom. Not only there isn’t a dresser, one closet is a owners closet so no access, closet 2 is a HVAC closet and also houses a recirculating pump that goes off every 15 minutes. Seriously how can you sleep? Beware of this room for anyone researching and renting. Southern Shores hasn’t addressed this issue.

On 7/6 it was noticed around 6p that the 1st and 2nd floors weren’t cooling. A phone call was placed but got the answering service that told us a message would be placed during operating hours expect a response in 2-3 days. Luckily my husband is an engineer and another cousin and were able to troubleshoot the system and get it operational again for the night to cool off a floor of babies and the senior stroke survivor. Southern Shores should have a 24 hour response especially during summer months when it comes to HVAC. Next day system started failing again call was placed and HVAC company arrived at 7p, which my family missed out on a family outing waiting for the provider. HVAC company couldn’t have been nicer assessed all units, increased fan speed and we had a night of cool air on the top 2 floors. Southern Shores hasn’t addressed this issue with us.

After all these stresses it was still an amazing vacation and the time with family. Just wouldn’t rent or recommend...